


How to Celebrate Birthdays: A Not-So-Comprehensive Guide

by Kira_Gold



Series: single fathers AU [2]
Category: Hamilton - Miranda
Genre: Aaron and Alex are single fathers, Happy Birthday Alexander Hamilton, M/M, Modern Era, Shopping Malls, Theo and Philip are kids, Tooth-Rotting Fluff, birthday fic
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-01-11
Updated: 2017-01-11
Packaged: 2018-09-16 22:23:36
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,420
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9292070
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Kira_Gold/pseuds/Kira_Gold
Summary: While Burr was thinking about what would be the best way to bring the topic up, however, his daughter has already done it for him: she climbed out of the car and smiled at his co-worker:“Hello, Mr Hamilton! Happy Birthday!”Aaron watched in amusement as Hamilton’s face flushed and the man turned to Philip, staring at him.“Sorry, it slipped,” the boy shrugged, not looking particularly apologetic.___________A part of the same 'verse as "Of Getting Lost in a Blizzard", but can be read separately.





	

**Author's Note:**

> So apparently today is Hamilton's birthday, and this is the reason why I wrote this instead of preparing for tomorrow's physics exam, yay! Hope you like it ^^

“Burr!”

Aaron stopped in the middle of the hallway when he heard Hamilton shouting from the other side of it. Sighed internally, because interactions with Alexander during the work time were more often than not a massive waste of time, and turn around. 

“Hamilton. Yes?”

The man skipped to him, almost dropping his papers on the way, and grinned tiredly, bags under his eyes as dark as ever. 

“Hi. Yes. Hi. Basically, Burr, sir, can I ask you a massive favour? I really need to bring all these documents to Mr Washington, fuckin’ paperwork, and then I have to finish another thing, which– sorry, sorry, I don’t mean to waste your time, sir. I was just going to ask whether you could –– I know you pick up Theo from school every day at like twelve, right? I was wondering whether you could perhaps get Phil on your way back and bring him here? Because I promised him to go somewhere today, and I really needed to plan picking him up too, but–”

“Hamilton,” Burr rolled his eyes, interrupting the man’s rambling. “You want me to pick up your son from school and bring him to the office, right?”

“Basically,” Alexander nodded, looking slightly aback after being interrupted. “Yeah, something like that. Of course if it wouldn’t be too much of a bother, because I know you always leave at about that time anyways, but if you can’t I’ll go ask Lafayette or–”

“Give me the school’s address,” Aaron chuckled. Telling him to talk less has never had any effect, so instead Burr just had to settle for interrupting.

“Oh!” Hamilton’s face immediately lit up with the brightest smile, and, okay, agreeing to help was definitely worth it. “Thank you so much! Sir. Oh yes, the address. Wait a second, I have it right here.”

Burr smirked and took Alexander’s papers from his hands as the man reached to his pockets looking for the phone. Honestly, for the literal right hand man of the firm’s head Hamilton was impressively-unorganised.

***

Philip’s school turned out to be not so far from Theodosia’s, so after picking his own daughter up, Burr stopped in front of the boy’s school gates, waiting for him to come out. Theo was bouncing excitedly in her seat, looking out of the car window. 

“Oh there he is!” she finally announced, pointing at the entrance. Aaron got out of the car, finding the boy with his eyes. His uniform was sitting on him rather offhandedly, and instead of carrying a book bag Philip just held all of his textbooks in his arms, which led Burr to assume that disorganization is Hamilton’s family gene or something. Either way, he waved at the boy and snorted quietly at the surprise on his face. 

“Mister Burr!” he exclaimed, coming closer, and that, too, resembled his father’s manner of speaking so much, Aaron almost found it surprising. “Hello sir! Is pops… busy or something?”

“He asked me to pick you up because he has to hand in a report to Mr Washington,” Burr shrugged. “Told me you were going somewhere afterwards though.”

“Oh yes!” Philip smiled. “Celebrating. We are going to eat cake and stuff!”

“Isn’t your birthday,” Burr frowned, remembering the date Alexander has given him, “on the twentieth? So early?”

“Twenty-second and of course we’re not celebrating mine eleven days early!” the boy giggled. “It’s dad’s, didn’t you know? You worked together for like a couple of years, right?”

Aaron squinted, looking slightly taken aback. Hamilton’s birthday, really? He never actually knew what day was the man born, probably because he was always rather secretive of all the details related to his personal life. Heck, Burr didn’t know he had a son until about a year after they first met! However, even the thought that hey, Hamilton does has a birth date, and he even celebrates it, albeit only with his son, sounded to some extend surreal. 

“I did not know,” he admitted and pointed to the car while Philip snickered. “Anyway, get in. Theo’s in there too. I’ll drop you off at work first and then bring her home.”

“Cool!” the boy exclaimed enthusiastically and climbed onto the back seat. Theodosia greeted him happily. Burr shook his head, almost shaking off some sort of trance, and picked up his phone, messaging Hamilton that he’ll be at work in about ten minutes. He received a “ _Great :D_ ” in return and barely supressed an urge to roll his eyes, because emojis, really? How old was Alexander?

(It was only a couple minutes into the ride when he realised how legitimate of a question that actually is. He might as well ask him later.)

***

The man, it turns out, was already waiting for him in the office building’s parking lot. The moment Aaron stopped his car, Philip jumped out of it, waving at his father. Alexander snickered at his eagerness and waved back. While Burr was thinking about what would be the best way to bring the topic up, however, his daughter has already done it for him: she climbed out of the car and smiled at his co-worker:

“Hello, Mr Hamilton! Happy Birthday!” 

Aaron watched in amusement as Hamilton’s face flushed and he turned to Philip, staring at him. 

“Sorry, it slipped,” the boy shrugged, not looking particularly apologetic. Alexander sighed. 

“Whatever. Thanks, Theo.”

“So it really is your birthday, huh?” Burr asked, stepping closer. Hamilton rolled his eyes.

“Sure. I don’t exactly celebrate though, well, apart from taking Phil out. Gifts, parties, not exactly my thing. Most people don’t even know.”

“I realised, seeing how I had no idea before today,” the man chuckled. “Well, happy whatever-th birthday.”

“Thank you,” Alexander nodded, blushing slightly, then looked over at his son. “Thirty first. Anyways, Philip–”

“Hey pops, can Theo come with us? Please?” the boy suddenly interrupted, tilting his head. Theodosia hid behind his back, looking slightly embarrassed but rather interested in the response. 

“Uh–” Hamilton frowned, looking as taken aback as Burr felt. “I mean. I don’t think I am the right person to ask? She is Mr Burr’s daughter after all, and–”

“Dad can go with us too!” Theo exclaimed in excitement. “Pretty please?”

Alexander and Aaron exchanged uncertain glances. Burr would, frankly speaking, be quite happy to get out of work once in a while, let alone with Hamilton, but he was not certain whether this feeling was in any way mutual. After all, he wouldn’t exactly call them friends, at least not from Alexander’s point of view. 

“I don’t–”

“Only if–”

They started and stopped speaking at the same time, still staring at each other. 

“You first,” Aaron nodded hastily. “It’s your party after all.”

“Please, it’s anything but a party,” the man scoffed. “And what I was saying is, I would be happy to have them with us, but only if Mr Burr doesn’t mind, because I know he does not like skipping work hours often.”

That was true, but also right now he hardly cared. 

“I was going to say I do not want to intrude on a family celebration, but if Mr Hamilton doesn’t mind, then–”

“Great!” Theo squealed. “Let’s go, let’s go, let’s go!”

“Let me just pick up my things and asked Mr Washington’s permission,” Burr sighed, pretending not to notice Alexander’s happy smile directed at him. Really, he was smiling unusually a lot in the last few weeks. Is it about time to start getting used to it yet? 

(Mr Washington, of course, didn’t mind an “occasional absenteeism from an otherwise amazing worker. Also, this is a first time in ages Alexander has invited anyone, so go have fun.” Aaron nodded gratefully and left his office, picking up his bag and trying not to think about these words all too much.)

*** 

Turns out, the Hamiltons weren’t big fans of celebrating somewhere fancy, instead choosing to go to a giant mall full of arcades, shops and unhealthy food. Burr has eventually given up on trying to stop Alexander from buying the kids sweets and ice cream despite it being the middle of the winter, because, really, once in a while you might as well forget about a healthy lifestyle. He ended up following around the group of two kids and one overexcited co-worker, holding a cup of toothrottingly sweet and surprisingly, although he hated to admit it, tasty hot chocolate in his hands. 

It was also surprisingly fun.

They walked into a bunch of stores (a toy one most notably, and seeing Theo’s wide open mouth was totally worth spending fifty bucks on a doll), bought a pizza instead of lunch and kept pointing out the goods which were sold left and right to each other.

(“Pops, they sell drones!” – “Our house is too small for them, please save the lights from smashing.”

“Daddy, look at that dress!” – “Don’t you think you’re a bit too short for it?”)

“What is this?” Theo tilted her head at some point, looking inside of a window of an apparently antique shop. “It’s like a feather, but in a box?”

“Oh, it’s a quill,” Burr laughed looking at the thing she pointed to. “A fine quality, by the way. Looks comfortable to use, although unnecessarily-fancy.”

“You can write with a quill?” Alexander’s eyes immediately lit up. “I have never tried, although – wow, this one is beautiful! I’d probably keep it on my desk and like write the most important documents with it, or, no, use it for signatures, can you imagine how cool it would be! Wait, how much– Holy shit, three hundred? Never mind, what the hell, do they all cost this much? Anyways, Phil, where is the arcade again? I haven’t been here in forever!”

Alexander, after shooting out the sentences, got immediately pulled away from the shop by his son, who was excitedly pointing out in which direction to go, and left Burr to stare at the said quill in thought. Huh. 

***

The arcade – and Aaron, being a serious adult, hated to admit it – turned out to be incredibly fun. Hamilton made him participate in a shooting contest with both kids cheering on their respective parent (Burr won, albeit only by a few points), then spent about half an hour trying to convince him to have a dance-off on one of the arcade machines (“Come on, Burr, it’s my birthday!”), and finally ended up buying even more unhealthy food for the kids (Theodosia, and Aaron could tell it by her gaze, absolutely adored the man for it).

Overall, Burr did not for a single moment regret coming along. 

At one point, when he was away trying to find a bathroom (and apparently getting lost in the mall judging by how long he didn’t show up), Philip looked at his dad with suspicion. 

“You stare at him.”

“I do not!” Alexander exclaimed, absolutely offended by that statement. “I just… I rarely see him so excited. Theo, come on, back me up on that, your dad rarely looks happy, doesn’t he!”

“That’s true,” the girl agreed seriously. “He always smiles, but he doesn’t look happy.”

And then the shooting game the kids were waiting for was finally freed, so they ran over to it, leaving Alexander to replay this conversation in his mind. Soon enough though Burr showed up (“You totally got lost, it has been like fifteen minutes!”) and they continued to discuss work and the “absolute dick John Adams is!” like nothing happened. 

They ended up staying in the mall until seven. The kids, albeit it only being an early evening, already began to yawn, and so they had to retreat back to the parking lot, bags full of toys in each of the adult’s hands, and the one he brought from work over Aarons shoulder. Burr opened his car and handed the gifts to Theo, who immediately run over to it, trying to balance them on the passenger seat, and turned to Alexander who has done the same with Philip. 

“Hey, Hamilton,” he said quietly after a few second of silently staring at his back, making the man turn around. 

“Yeah? By the way, Burr, thank you so much for coming, it was really fun! And Phil seems to enjoy your daughter’s company!”

“Yeah,” Aaron smiled softly, glancing at the kids who were now done with putting their things into the cars and were saying goodbyes. “That’s good. So anyways, what I was going to say is, I know you don’t exactly like gifts, but we have worked together for so long and I have never given you anything for your birthday, so here you go.”

He took out a small bag from his own rucksack and passed it to Hamilton. The man immediately flushed, accepting it. 

“Thank you very much, but you really didn’t–”

He hesitated, having looked inside, and then shook his head vigorously. 

“Burr, sir, thank you so much, but I cannot accept it. This thing cost like three hundred dollars, and–”

“Seriously, Hamilton, I do not care. I wanted to give you a gift, so I am. But if you absolutely must, consider it as a thank you for saving Theodosia back when she got lost, because I still haven’t repaid you for that.”

“As I said, you don’t have to repay me because of course I would–”

“Just accept the damn thing, Alexander,” Aaron rolled his eyes. “But you better learn how to write with it, and next time I need your signature, I expect it done in ink. Happy birthday again. Theo, come on, say bye to Mr Hamilton, we’re going!”

“Goodbye sir!” Theodosia smiled and followed her father, who was pretending that his hands were not at all shaking as he opened the driver’s door. Alexander was still standing in the middle of the parking lot looking at the antique quill set, dumbfounded, and didn’t react even when Philip started tugging him on his sleeve. Aaron was honestly expecting to drive off without getting any indication of whether the man liked his present or not, but then, as he almost closed the door, Alexander’s face split into a wide grin as he looked over at Burr, his eyes shining. 

“Thank you!” he yelled almost hesitantly, putting the quill back in the bag, the disarming and too bright to be considered usual smile still on his face. “Thank you so much, Aaron! See you tomorrow!”

And as he waved back and drove off, Aaron Burr pretended he is absolutely, most definitely not blushing.

(Thank god Theo didn’t notice.)


End file.
